


Duty

by midnight12181



Category: Soul Calibur
Genre: Drabble, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-07
Updated: 2011-08-07
Packaged: 2017-10-22 08:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/236309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnight12181/pseuds/midnight12181
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kilik hits on Hwang, but Hwang can't help but hide behind his sense of duty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duty

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Duty  
> Fandom: Soul Calibur II  
> Author: Sprink  
> Rating: PG-13  
> Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. Kilik, Hwang, Seung Mina, Yunsung and Maxi are owned and operated by Namco.  
> Warnings: Heartbreak, Man on Man action
> 
> Note: This is a very old fic. I've edited it a touch, but the core of it remains intact.

I think the boy just hit on me. He managed to keep Mina and myself from leaving after my duel with that pirate. Or, more accurately, he found out that he and Mina share a fighting style. Either way, Mina had convinced me to have us stay in this inn tonight.

She had gone up to bed an hour ago. When she convinced me to stay, I made her promise not to run during the night.

Kilik hadn't wanted to stay downstairs drinking with the pirate, but apparently he didn't want to be alone, either. He'd invited me to the room he was sharing with Maxi, claiming he wanted to hear about my travels. We had been sharing pleasant conversation, and as I spoke of some of the more risque things I'd done, I watched his cheeks pink with blood.

Then he spoke the words that made my eyebrow raise.

"So... I guess you've had some pretty exciting adventures," Kilik said, his cheeks pink and his eyes looking everywhere but at me. "I wonder what kind of adventures I'd have if I were traveling with you."

That leads us up to now, where I'm just looking at him, trying to determine the meaning of his words.

"Hwang?" he asks as he looks up through his bangs at me.

Gods, he *is* hitting on me. But, I thought that he and the pirate were...? No matter. Either way, I can't be more than a friend to him. Many things hold me back.

"Our paths are different, Kilik," I say, watching his face fall.

While he may be a beautiful boy, my heart belongs to another. I could never kiss those soft-looking lips in passion without something breaking inside me.

"Your fate lies with Maxi," I offer in explanation. "Your travels take you in the opposite direction from mine."

Were the situation different, I might have taken him up on his offer. But I can't. I have to bring my charge back home to her father. Once I get her back to Korea, I can tell her. I can tell her how I feel about her. I know there is another, younger man waiting for her return, but she's told me how she detests him. She affectionately calls me her 'jailer,' but I know that she understands why I must return her to her father.

"Hwang?" Kilik's voice breaks me from my thoughts.

I notice the firm set of his jaw. He's trying to be strong, to take what must be his first rejection well.

I stand. "I'm sorry, Kilik."

He stands ass well. "No, I'm sorry, Hwang. I was presumptuous." He's doing a good job at covering up his hurt.

But not good enough.

I take his chin in my hand. "Kilik," my voice makes his eyes meet mine. "You are a beautiful, caring, compassionate boy, but you are still just that. A boy. A child, with the destiny of the world on your shoulders. You have a duty to destroy the Sword of Salvation, this Soul Edge, as you call it. You could no more come with me back to Korea than I could leave Mina and travel with you. We *do* have different lots in this life, Kilik. Were things different, perhaps this could work, but we both have our responsibilities placed on us by our destinies."

He nods, and I swear I see the beginning of a tear in his eye. "I understand," he says.

I pull him into an embrace, my lips ghosting over his forehead. "I'm sorry. I can no more shirk my duty than stop breathing." I press a chaste, apologetic kiss to his lips.

He tries to turn the kiss into something more. Were I a lesser man, I would have given in, but if I succumb to his charms this time, he'd only hurt more when duty took me far from him. I push him away with a gentle, "no."

I don't want to look into his eyes as I hear a choked sob. But that would be cowardly, and that's one thing I am not. The hurt in his eyes makes my own heart hurt. I take a couple steps back. He looks so much like little Yunsung did when I left to find Mina. I briefly wonder what would happen were Kilik and Yunsung to meet, but as a tear slides down Kilik's cheek, I stop speculating.

"Without duty, our lives are meaningless," I say. "Mine is to Mina. Yours is to destiny. Let me hear stories of your rising to your duty. Don't disappoint me."

I have to turn my back on him to leave. As I close the door behind me, I hear a sound like someone crumbling to the floor, followed by a heart-wrenching gasp. I walk to my room next to Mina's. I have turned a boy into a man without even touching him. It was bound to happen eventually. Perhaps it's best it happened now.

If that's so, then why are there tearstains on my cheeks?


End file.
